Hydrogen |
EnBW’s Stuttgart-Münster site and, in the foreground, hydrogen-ready fuel-switch power plant (Photo: EnBW)
Getting hydrogen-ready in Stuttgart
Against a backdrop of intensive policy debate in Germany about the legal framework for financing urgently needed investment in dispatchable power plant capacity, EnBW has officially commissioned one of Germany’s first hydrogen- ready gas turbine power plants, at its Stuttgart- Münster site, although it is not expecting to be actually running on hydrogen for another ten years or so.
The project paves the way for more plants of a similar type, says EnBW – especially considering that southern Germany has a particularly pressing need for highly flexible power plants to complement weather-dependent renewable energy sources and to maintain grid stability. “The power plants needed for the energy transition cannot be financed by the market alone,” says EnBW CEO Dr Georg Stamatelopoulos. “This is why the German government needs to create a framework of regulatory incentives for more investment as part of its programme for the first 100 days in power.” Further EnBW fuel-switch projects will see conversion of previously coal-fired power plant sites in Altbach/Deizisau and Heilbronn to hydrogen-ready gas-fired power plants. In total, such plants will have a total installed capacity of 1.5 GW, representing an investment of some €1.6 billion.
As of FY2024, EnBW had already reduced its carbon intensity to 272g/kWh, a 45% reduction
compared with 2022, with renewables now accounting for around 59% of EnBW’s installed generation capacity.
Modernising Stuttgart-Münster With its focus is on waste incineration and CHP (for district heating), Stuttgart-Münster (which has been a power plant site since 1908) stands out in the EnBW power plant portfolio.
Up until now, coal-fired boilers have supplied additional heat when the waste incineration plant did not produce enough for the district heating network in winter. Those coal-fired boilers are now being replaced by the new hydrogen-ready gas-fired power plant.
The existing CHP plant comprises three coal-fired boilers, three waste-fired boilers, three steam turbines (total installed capacity 114 MWe), and three oil-fired gas turbines (total installed capacity 69 MWe).
Since April 2024, a large heat pump has, in addition, been generating up to 24 MW of heat for district heating.
The Stuttgart-Münster plant provides a total of about 450 MWt of heat. Together with the Stuttgart-Gaisburg and Altbach/Deizisau CHP plants, the Stuttgart-Münster plant serves a district heating network covering the central River Neckar region.
Following about three years of planning and approval processes and two years of
24 | May 2025|
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construction, the Stuttgart-Münster site has now been comprehensively modernised with the new 2 x SGT-800 gas turbine plant providing 124 MWe, plus waste heat and hot water boilers supplying 450 MWt of district heat as before, and 114 MWe of steam turbine capacity retained. “EnBW is currently building half of all gas- fired power plants now under construction in Germany,” says Peter Heydecker, Chief Operating Officer for Sustainable Generation Infrastructure at EnBW. “From the mid-2030s, we expect to take the next step and, after a second fuel switch, operate the plant on up to 100% low-carbon hydrogen, provided that this is available in sufficient quantities.”
After a short period running in parallel, the coal-fired unit and the fuel oil-fired gas turbines within the old cogeneration plant at the site will be completely decommissioned in the spring of 2026. This will contribute significantly to climate change mitigation in the City of Stuttgart, which is aiming for elimination of coal in its district heating system by 2030 and net zero by 2035. The Stuttgart-Münster H2
-ready fuel-switch
power plant is also seen as supporting further expansion of renewable energy, as it is highly flexible and can start up very quickly in response to grid fluctuations when weather conditions cause a shortage of renewables. This means it can contribute significantly to security of supply in southern Germany, says EnBW.
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